Green Your Ride

These days, more and more people are starting to turn to green vehicles to save money and help the environment. They are taking action, turning their old gas guzzlers in for car donation, and buying better ones. Hybrid cars are becoming more popular.

When it comes to hybrid cars, there are plenty of pros and cons to consider. You’ll spend less money on gas if you drive a hybrid car, which in this economy can be reason enough to donate your car and go pick up a new one! For instance, a Prius spends about $0.07 per mile while a Camry averages $0.19 per mile. Hybrids use up less natural resources and reduce your carbon footprint. They’re even quieter than any other vehicle. However, you can also expect some cons as well. Firstly, most hybrid cars are a bit more expensive than other cars. More breakdowns can be expected as the car has two separate engines so potential engine problems can be twice as high. They also go through batteries relatively quickly.

You may also want to look into electric cars. Electric cars have a battery pack to store electricity and an electric motor that turns the wheels. They’re very low-maintenance compared to regular cars because they have fewer parts in their engines. They don’t need to be filled up with gas, and most importantly, they don’t pollute! You can convert your engine so it runs on electricity. However, they can be a bit more expensive both in asking price as well as battery cost, and some people have concerns about straining existing electric grids.

People are also looking into biofuels. These fuels are made by combining certain types of alcohol (usually methanol) with vegetable oil, animal fat, or recycled cooking grease. They are naturally renewable since you can grow the organic material. Biofuels are also easily convertible and emit nontoxic cleaner emissions. However, there are some cons too. While they’re easy to make, with the way gas stations are outfitted today, it is difficult to find a place selling biofuel. Some others worry that we can’t grow enough crops to both continue feeding everyone and produce biofuels. To replace around 5% of the United States’ diesel fuel with biofuel, you’d have to divert around 60% of the nation’s soy crops to produce the biofuel. That in turn would push up food prices.

Meanwhile, hydrogen cars use hydrogen as their fuel. They convert the chemical energy of hydrogen into “mechanical energy” that is used as fuel. You can fuel a hydrogen car less often than you’ll have to charge an electric car. One major disadvantage is the fact that hydrogen cars produce more pollution than cars powered by gas. Scientists also predict it will take an extremely long time to implement any kind of wide-scale use of hydrogen cars. Most scientists widely accept that other forms of fuel should be looked at first, because hydrogen itself is not a source of energy, rather, a way of storing it.

Getting rid of polluting vehicles and buying green ones is all the rage these days. With so many perks, it’s little wonder why people are rushing to car donation services!